Speakers can elevate event ROI with engagement, content marketing and collaboration.
The demands of the professional speaker are increasing. On-the-mark content is critical to driving overall event ROI for both attendees and event sponsors alike. Great content is the prime attendance driver and greatly increases the likelihood that attendees will return year after year. It can make a big difference in the success of a conference or meeting if planners are able to strategize on creating unique content and retain the comfort that they’ll stay within budget for talent and entertainment.
In today’s media environment, speakers have to do more than just show up for an event—they are being asked to support their messages before, during and after events to more deeply engage audiences and serve planners with a range of ideas, creative presentation methods and customized content support.
The development of detailed engagement strategies for keynote events to create more value and ROI is on the rise. Clients not only engage a great speaker for their event; they also require the support of a creative team to design, write, edit and publish a variety of supporting content around that respective message.
Those of us who work with speakers are being asked to provide meeting planners with transparency and insight when investing in a speaker, offering customized solutions to help with ROI and beyond-the-event engagement.
This requires a more holistic approach with many parts and pieces in order to create a seamless, engaging experience for attendees.
When planners can work directly with the content creator (speaker, author, expert, entrepreneur) to either craft or repurpose their presentation into digestible pieces, that content can then be distributed across social platforms, blogs, newsletters, mobile applications, handouts and other supporting pieces around their talk to start engaging with the conversation, increasing interest and driving attendance. Promoting the event and/or speaker becomes not only seamless, but also highly successful.
A speaker who is prepared to deliver content beyond their talk is better prepared and positioned to work with meeting planners, clients and events because their message is supported beyond the actual keynote events and the experience for the audience is thus more personal and meaningful.
When speakers understand this approach and can deliver on it, meeting planners are, of course, less stressed and much happier. The planner is able to focus on building a social profile for the event; distributing valuable, meaningful content; and keeping their audience engaged not only at the event, but beyond.
Most importantly, ROI can be measured.
While companies use a variety of methods to measure success, pre- and post-event surveys, engagement metrics via mobile app data and social channels should be the primary resources for data. These measures also provide planners with the ability to listen and respond to attendees easily while capturing their implicit social signals of interest, allowing them to learn how to improve future events.
While there is not a one-size-fits all approach to any event, planners, speakers and speaker bureaux must all roll up their sleeves, collaborate wisely and use the various technologies, social outlets and mobile apps to help support and deliver content in a highly relevant, timely and expansive way in order to meet the growing demands of delivering more with less.
